How PhotoShelter Helps Olympic Stories Reach the World

Small teams needed a bigger content operation supporting them

The Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) supports all 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) around the world. In addition to representing its members, ANOC helps them grow by providing resources, technology, and content services that make it easier to promote their athletes, engage fans, and cover major sporting events.

At the center of that mission is content: photos, video, and stories that connect athletes to fans back home, and that give NOCs, many of which have little to no in-house production capacity, a way to build visibility and attract sponsorship.

The challenge: Helping 206 National Olympic Committees tell their athletes’ stories

For roughly 85% of NOCs, creating content during major Games is nearly impossible. All content created inside the Olympic Village and at competition venues must follow IOC rights and content guidelines. Most national committees also lack the budget for their own photographers or studio teams. On top of that, ANOC also partners with international federations, often serving as the official broadcaster organizing and distributing content from world championships and other competitions.

Bastien Sancey Richard, ANOC’s Director of Communication, Marketing & IT, and Andres Santi, Events and Project Senior Manager, help members improve how they communicate, manage social media, access content, and share information. But finding and sharing all of that content across the countries, international federations, and athletes wasn’t easy.

• ANOC couldn’t organize and share Olympic content. Every event generated a large volume of photos and videos from photographers, broadcasters, international federations, and production teams. “One big challenge during this type of event is that there are thousands and thousands of pieces of content from everywhere. It is impossible to sort it, identify the right content, and share it without a system.”
• Shared drives became content dumping grounds. Contributors uploaded everything into shared Dropbox and Google Drive folders, leaving NOCs to search through thousands of files on their own. As Bastien said, “At the end of the day, all the stakeholders put everything inside and it was up to you to find it. Nobody used them.” 
• Existing systems created more work. ANOC’s in-house platform required separate logins for every National Olympic Committee, leaving the team responsible for maintaining user accounts, uploads, and ongoing system updates instead of supporting members.
• Small NOCs couldn’t tell their athletes’ stories. Most committees had only one communications staff member covering an entire event. They focused on competition results, leaving little time to create interviews, portraits, behind-the-scenes moments, or content that helped fans connect with athletes. 
• Content could not be delivered fast enough. During major events, every minute matters. Manually sorting files and sending downloads meant smaller NOCs often received content too late to capitalize on the moment.

“For our members, it’s a real challenge to create content. Sometimes they just don’t have the skills or the capacity.”

Events and Project Senior Manager, ANOC

© 2026 ANOC

The solution: One connected system for sharing Olympic content

ANOC needed more than a place to store files. They needed a connected content operation that could collect, organize, and distribute across hundreds of organizations in real time. Today, Bastien and Andres use PhotoShelter and Socialie as the “digital bridge” between National Olympic Committees, international federations, athletes, broadcasters, partners, and media.

Here’s how PhotoShelter helps ANOC support Olympic storytelling around the world.

• One platform supports every stage of the Olympic content lifecycle. During the Olympic Games, ANOC captures athlete interviews, studio photography, and behind-the-scenes content in athletes’ native languages, inside the Olympic Village. Between Games, the team works with international federations to organize content from world championships and other events. At regional competitions like the Islamic Solidarity Games, PhotoShelter manages everything from portrait photography to AI-generated highlight reels and broadcast content in one centralized library.
• Content reaches the right National Olympic Committee automatically. Instead of manually sorting thousands of assets during time-sensitive events, approved content is routed to the correct National Olympic Committee within seconds. ANOC connects Dropbox directly to PhotoShelter and Socialie so files are automatically organized and delivered as photographers upload them.
• Getty Images workflows deliver real-time coverage to smaller nations. Through the IOC’s NOC Photo Program, Getty Images uploads athlete photography directly into ANOC’s workflow. Automated Socialie rules immediately send those images to the appropriate National Olympic Committee, giving countries like Haiti, Madagascar, and Malta access to professional event photography they otherwise couldn’t produce themselves. 
• Small communications teams can publish more than competition results. ANOC creates athlete interviews, portrait sessions, village content, and highlight videos that many NOCs don’t have the staff or resources to produce on their own. For members who need additional support, ANOC also uses AI to draft social media captions so staff can review, edit, and publish content with just a few clicks.

© 2026 ANOC

• Performance data helps ANOC improve every event. Socialie gives the team visibility into how content is being used, which National Olympic Committees are engaging with assets, and where additional support may be needed. As Bastien explained, “As our content goes live, we see exactly how we should move forward. It helps us sometimes change our approach, push some NOCs and say, ‘Maybe you forgot to communicate. Look, you have nice content.'”
• Existing tools work together instead of creating more work. Rather than replacing established workflows, PhotoShelter connects the systems ANOC already relies on. Teams continue uploading through Dropbox, distribute content with Socialie, and pull approved assets into Canva for presentations, reports, and partner materials.

“Imagine I am a national committee. With PhotoShelter and Socialie, I will receive a notification on my phone, ‘Hey, guys, there’s a nice picture of your athlete on the track and field, use it to communicate’, and I just need to click share, and that’s it.”

Director of Communication, Marketing & IT, ANOC

ANOC’s workflow at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026

Through the IOC’s NOC Photo Programme, Getty Images uploads professional athlete photography directly into ANOC’s workflow. PhotoShelter and Socialie automatically organize and distribute those images through the ANOC Digital Content Hub, sending tailored content suggestions to each National Olympic Committee within seconds.

The program proved particularly valuable for NOCs with limited resources and smaller delegations. Participating NOCs gave the program high ratings across every category, including 9.5/10 for the usefulness of the ANOC Digital Content Hub, 9.25/10 for photo quality, 9.06/10 for communication efficiency, 8.88/10 overall, and 8.33/10 for value.

ANOC turned thousands of assets into medal-worthy stories

For Bastien and Andres, the value comes from helping every NOC share more of its athletes’ stories, from competition highlights to the moments that happen long after the game is over.

ANOC is expanding its content-and-distribution model to more international federations and multi-sport events. As Bastien puts it, “We are in a situation where we’ve built a product that nobody else does, and we can replicate this for every event, every three or four months… I call the project the win-win-win-win project, because everyone wins at the end.”

“What we discovered is that with our position and our network with the National Olympic Committees, we are the only one where you can invite us to create a multi-sport event. We come with our skills, our digital platform, including PhotoShelter and Socialie, with our network and our process management. We can be the facilitator to collect all the content and spread it to all the stakeholders of the event.”

Director of Communication, Marketing & IT, ANOC